First published by a small press in India, Jerry Pinto’s
devastatingly original debut novel has already taken the literary world by
storm. Suffused with compassion, humor, and hard-won wisdom, Em and the Big
Hoom is a modern masterpiece, and its American publication is certain to be
one of the major literary events of the season.

Meet Imelda and Augustine, or—as our young narrator calls
his unusual parents—Em and the Big Hoom. Most of the time, Em smokes
endless beedies and sings her way through life. She is the sun around
which everyone else orbits. But as enchanting and high-spirited as she can be,
when Em’s bipolar disorder seizes her she becomes monstrous, sometimes with
calamitous consequences for herself and others. This accomplished debut is
graceful and urgent, with a one-of-a-kind voice that will stay with readers
long after the last page.

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Quotes & Awards

“Em and the Big Hoom is a beautiful
book, a child’s-eye view of madness and sorrow, full of love, pain, and, unaccountably,
much wild comedy. One of the very best books to come out of India in a long,
long time.”

Salman Rushdie, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“It is utterly persuasive and deeply affecting:
stylistically adventurous it is never self-indulgent; although suffused with
pain it shows no trace of self-pity. Parts of it are extremely funny, and its
pages are filled with endearing and eccentric characters. Em and the Big
Hoom is a profoundly moving book: I cannot remember when I last read
something as touching as this.”

Amitav Ghosh, New York Times bestselling author and Man Booker Prize finalist

“Pinto chases the elusive portrait of a mother
who simply said of herself that she was mad. As I read the novel, that also
portrays a very tender marriage and the life of a Goan family in Bombay, it
drowned me. I mean that in the best way. It plunged me into a world so vivid
and capricious that when I finished, I found something had shifted and changed
within myself. This is a world of magnified and dark emotion. The anger is a
primal force, the sadness wild and raw. Against this, the jokes are hilarious,
reckless, free falling…This is a rare, brilliant book, one that is wonderfully
different from any other that I have read coming out of India.”

Kiran Desai, author of The Inheritance of Loss, winner of the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award

“Pinto’s narrative is both brutal and
beautiful.”

Business Standard Book Review

“Deeply engrossing, finely tuned, and told with
a moving and luminous clarity, this is a splendid and memorable debut.”

Hindu

“Pinto’s debut offers a heartbreaking glimpse into the daily horrors and
sometimes humors of growing up with a mentally ill parent…Even in her many betrayals, Em is charming; the narrator’s depiction of
her is unflinching and honest, and relayed in a tidy voice that’s
nearly matter-of-fact. The result is a trim but deeply felt first novel
that successfully navigates some difficult territory—identity, madness,
our obligations to one another—without ever becoming bogged down.”

Publishers Weekly

“Narrator
Neil Shah uses his voice effectively, adding layers and depth to all of these
characters.”

AudioFile

“Although it’s set in India, Em and the
Big Hoom is a relevant and resonant book for any audience, anywhere,
transcending territory and nationality even as it reflects upon them. It is a
great big wide novel with a voice so unique and yet, somehow, so familiar that
its words ring in your ears long after you’ve left these pages, calling you
back, again and again, to a story that demands to be read.”

Lauren Slater, author of Opening Skinner’s Box and Prozac Diary

Listener Reviews

About the Author

Jerry Pinto is a writer of poetry, prose, and
children’s fiction; a journalist; and the winner of numerous
literary awards. Em and the Big Hoom, his
first novel, won the 2013 Crossword Book Award for fiction and the Hindu Literary Award. He lives in Mumbai, India.

About the Narrator

Neil Shah is an Audie Award–nominated narrator and voice-over artist who
has recorded numerous audiobooks and won an AudioFile Earphones Award. His reading include I Am an Executioner by
Rajesh Parameswaran, The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais, and Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo
by Anjan Sundaram. He is a classically trained
actor with an MFA from the Old Globe / University of San Diego program and has
appeared on off-Broadway and regional stages, as well as in film and
television.

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